This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No. 2002-49903, filed Aug. 22, 2002, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to microwave ovens and, more particularly, to a microwave oven capable of cooking food using steam.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known to those skilled in the art, a conventional microwave oven is an appliance, which cooks food placed in a cooking cavity thereof using microwaves from a magnetron to irradiate the cooking cavity. Typically, an electric heater cooks the food by heating surfaces of the food, but the microwave oven cooks the food by heating an interior of the food through a dielectric heating operation. When the microwaves from the magnetron of the microwave oven irradiate the food and cause molecules of moisture laden in the food to vibrate, frictional heat is generated within the food and cooks the food.
However, the conventional microwave oven is problematic in that a taste and an appearance of the food are deteriorated when the moisture laden in the food is removed from the food. The moisture laden in the food is removed from the food by the frictional heat generated when the microwaves from the magnetron irradiate the food causing the molecules of the moisture laden in the food to vibrate. The conventional microwave oven has another problem in that cooking steamed food to which water must be added during cooking is difficult.
Accordingly, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide a microwave oven, which is capable of cooking food by steam generated through a microwave heating operation.
Another aspect is to provide a microwave oven, which is capable of cooking through a microwave heating operation and through a steam heating operation at the same time.
Additional aspects and/or advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
The foregoing and/or other aspects are achieved by providing a microwave oven, comprising a cabinet provided with a cooking cavity and a microwave irradiating unit irradiating microwaves into the cooking cavity, a steaming unit including a steaming container made of a microwave penetrable material and installed to an upper portion of the cabinet such that a lower portion of the steaming container is placed in the cooking cavity, the steaming container being open at a top thereof, and a cover to selectively close the open top of the steaming container.
A container seating opening is formed at a predetermined position on the upper portion of the cabinet such that the steaming container is removably installed to the upper portion of the cabinet, and the steaming container is seated in the container seating opening such that an outer circumferential surface of the steaming container is in close contact with an edge of the container seating opening.
The microwave oven includes a closure member to close the container seating opening when the steaming container is removed from the container seating opening.
The steaming container includes a net-shaped support member provided at a position spaced apart from a bottom wall of the steaming container by a predetermined height such that food received in the steaming container is spaced apart from water contained in the lower portion of the steaming container.
The steaming container is designed to form a step such that an outer diameter of the steaming container is stepwise reduced in a direction from an upper portion of the steaming container to the lower portion thereof.
A tray to rotatably support food is interiorly installed to a bottom of the cooking cavity such that the food is cooked by a microwave heating operation.